Food recipes like Tacos or Gyros Sandwich start with a shell to hold the ingredients required to complete the recipe. In the case of a common taco, you would add meat, cheese, lettuce and a sauce to the shell. Because of the shape of the shell which typically has a rounded bottom, the cook is challenged with placing the shell in a position, so that the ingredients can be easily added without the shell tipping out of position and causing the ingredients falling back out which can cause a mess in the preparation area adding to a frustrating situation.
The shells used in these recipes are also both fragile and perishable. In the prior art, manufacturers such as Ortega have developed packages for their hard shell corn tacos that stack the shells together and then lay them into a vacuum formed plastic tray in a horizontal position and then be seal with a plastic film to protect the integrity. Such tray has a large cavity that cradles a combined stack of shells. Then the balance of the tray is shaped so it can fit in a rectangular box that will stand on a store shelf. Also ribbing can be found that works to cushion and keep the stacked shells from shifting once inside the box. The package used by Ortega has many features that protect the shells, but it does not have features that allow the shell to stand in an upright position in the tray that would aid the cook in completing the taco recipe.
For many food items including the example of a taco shell, packaging that invents a dual use with both storage and holding functions will give benefits to both the food preparer and the food marketer. You often see the unique type of packaging the marketer is using featured on the labels and in the advertising for the food product. This indicates that packaging features can have value in helping the marketer sell more of the product and in some cases these features can result in a customer more satisfied with the product which increases the likelihood of the customer repurchasing the product.
The packaging herein disclosed can do this for a variety of food items now on the market that require the food item to be positioned to receive additional ingredients typically added when completing a recipe. This would apply to both hard and soft-formed items, and even items not currently on the market that could be developed in the future, one example is a variety of formed shells that have recently received design patents such as D 623,826 (Griebel), which is for a formed tortilla in a tulip shape. Such shape has a rounded bottom that would make it very difficult to stand upright during the recipe assembly process without the aid of a holder.
The prior art does include inventions that position shells to stand upright during the recipe assembly process, in one patent, D 590,126 (Kovich), this problem is addressed by forming the shell with a flat bottom, but conventional packaging is still required to protect and preserve the food product. In other patents such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,065,870 (Conder) the invention is a separate stand that holds the shells, which most likely requires cleaning after use and storage between use and is not a package.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,203,493 (Moody) is an invention of a convertible taco package and holder. In this design the user is required to physically alter the package so that it will ultimately hold a shell in an upright position. This activity adds preparation time.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,041,326 (Bradley) is an invention of a food package that will store a shell such as an ice cream cone and has features that both protects and preserves the shell. Additional packaging material and space is used in this invention to create a separate compartment that would then allow the user to hold the item in a stationary position for combining the food item with other food items. This could also be defined as a package with a compartment and a separate holder, but does not integrate the holder with the compartment. Basically this package attaches a separate holding area to adjacent holding compartments and the end result takes more space and uses noticeably more package material than what would normally be found in a package that has just a storage compartment.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,899,884 (Madsen) is an invention that will store stacked ice cream shells in a horizontal position suitable for shipping and also has a separate set of surfaces that will stand the separated shells in an alternative vertical position, which will position the cone in an upright manner so that a scoop of ice cream can be placed in the open end of the cone. However, Madsen is limiting to shells of a conical shape and actually teaches away from offering a sealed package environment as the surfaces that hold the conical shells in an upright position are also holes that provide ventilation to help cool the freshly baked shells while in the container. While the holes that hold the cones upright are located in the area that also holds the shells horizontally, the two sets of surfaces are not contiguously integrated and will only work when the invention is inverted.
I know of no invention in the prior art that within a single sealed compartment has a first set of formed surfaces that are intended to protect and position the food item during transport and storage, and has a feature that will also has integrated as part of the compartment a second set of surfaces that allow the food item to stand in an alternative stationary position, with said position being an aid to the food preparation process undertaken by the end user. Additionally, I know of no prior art that has a positioning feature that is contiguously formed into other surfaces such as the storage compartment or the portion of the food package that allows the package to stand upright on a storage shelf or fit snugly in a box with said vertical holding surfaces integrated in a manner that also creates additional cushioning that further protects the food item from horizontal movement when the food item is stored and transported.
The Dual Use Food Container creates many additional opportunities for food marketers that do not exist with conventional packaging. For example, often a cook will warm the formed food shell prior to adding the ingredients required to complete the recipe. The dual use food container can also be manufactured in a material like polypropylene that can be safely heated without the material loosing its shape or affecting the food when the shells are placed in the container and then warmed in an oven. Doing this would also save the cook the extra step of placing the shells on a baking sheet prior to assembly.
Another exclusive benefit that is created by having two separate holding surfaces fully located and integrated within the compartment is the ability to collect and contain the over spill of ingredients that can occur in the assembly process.
Also included in the disclosure is a method for preparing a food item within the food container that originally held the food item or combined food items in a position suitable for storage and transportation. Taco packages currently on the market place will often have instructions to complete a taco recipe right on the back of their package. The inclusion of this information by the manufacturer is an indicator that the information is useful. With the advent of the dual use food container now disclosed herein, the need to also describe a method that incorporates the standing feature of the dual use arises.Also included in the disclosure are details that combine in one box a stand for holding a shell like food item upright and can include some or all of the ingredients intended to be inserted into the shell to complete a recipe. The stand can also be shaped to fit in a box while it cradles the shells, with the shape of the stand also providing additional support to the box, which also protects the shells against breakage.Taco shell manufactures currently do offer some “kits” that combine various shells with other ingredients such as seasoning and sauce all in one package. An illustration of one example of this can be found in U.S. Patent Application Publication 2010/0272863 (Griebel). Ortega also offers several kits and at least one that includes a collapsible stand described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,971,168 (Prouix). The creation of kits by major taco shell makers such as Ortega and General Mills which is the distributor of the Old El Paso brand and the assignee of many taco shell related, USPTO Patents, such as Griebel (D 623,826) is an indicator that what is offered in the way of kits is useful and appealing to their customers.With the advent of the dual use food container now disclosed herein, new opportunities exist for the creation of kits that include the dual use food container and or a dual use stand that will help facilitate standing the shell upright as the end user completes the recipe. Unlike the collapsible stand found in the Ortega kit, the stand included in the kit disclosed herein will also protect the food product when stored and transported.Additional new opportunities also exist when the dual use stand or dual use food container is made out of heat resistant materials which will allow the user to place the recipe ingredients within the shell and then placing it all within the stand which can then be warmed in the oven.